First developed in the 1970s, fiber-optic communication systems have revolutionized the telecommunications industry. Optical fibers have largely replaced copper wire due to the advantages of fiber-optic communications over copper wire communications.
In order to implement fiber-optic communication, one node of a fiber-optic network generates an optical signal that is transmitted along optical fiber. Then another node of the fiber-optic network may receive the optical signal and convert the optical signal into an electrical signal. The generated optical signal may be derived from an electrical signal as well. Typically, along with optical fibers and control units, transceivers with the capability to convert an electrical signal to an optical signal (and vice versa) enable optical networks. Additionally, other devices besides control units, such as optical-amplification systems make fiber-optic communications viable. Such systems along with other devices ensure that a communicated optical signal does not become too distorted or weak.